NewEnergyNews: ALGAE TO ETHANOL START-UP/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

    --------------------------

    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

    --------------------------

    --------------------------

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

    -------------------

    -------------------

      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

    -------------------

    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Friday, July 03, 2009

    ALGAE TO ETHANOL START-UP

    Algenol, Dow Chemical Partner For Algae-To-Fuel Pilot Plant
    Mara Lemos Stein, June 30, 2009 (Dow Jones Clean Technology Insight via CNN Money)

    "Start-up Algenol Biofuels Inc. has formed a partnership with The Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) to develop a $50 million, algae-to-fuel pilot- scale plant employing Algenol's technology, which the partners expect will be partly funded using Department of Energy [DOE] grants…[$480 million of the stimulus fund’s $786.5 million DOE grant program for biofuels is for the development of] integrated pilot- and demonstration-scale biorefineries…Dow Chemical [is] signing the grant application as a collaborator in the project.

    "Algenol has enough equity to fund the remaining cost of the project, but it plans to seek further government funding in 2010 for other projects…Dow will contribute land, engineering and water-management expertise, its advanced materials technology as well as a main feedstock - carbon emissions - to the project."


    Schematic of an Algenol plant. Funded by Dow Chemical and DOE. (click to enlarge)

    "Algenol, launched in 2006 by four partners, has been running on private funds, with the founders themselves injecting $70 million into the company so far…Algenol has developed a genetic-enhancement technology that links the production of sugar from photosynthesis with the enzymes required to produce ethanol within an individual blue-green algae cell.

    "The whole process occurs inside a plastic container measuring 6 by 100 feet, into which salt water and carbon dioxide are pumped. As sunrays flow in, ethanol molecules are produced and accumulated on the roof of the container, known as a photo-bioreactor, from where they are collected at regular intervals."


    Artist's rendering of a field of algae, growing on slat water, sunlight and CO2. (click to enlarge)

    "Dow's contributions will be "in-kind service" and technology…Dow plans to develop the advanced materials and specialty films for the photo-bioreactor system…[It] will also provide 24 acres at its Freeport, Texas, site for the construction of the pilot plant, water-treatment technology and access to a CO2 source for the biorefinery from a nearby manufacturing facility.

    "As governments seek alternatives to fossil-fuel as a source of energy, chemical companies such as Dow and its competitor BASF Group have emerged as potential developers of energy storage capabilities such as lithium-ion batteries. This is a first investment in biofuels for Dow…It will also be working to develop bio-based ethylene from the Algenol-produced ethanol as a basis for green chemicals…[T]he pilot plant [will consume] consuming 2 metric tons of CO2 a day..."

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    << Home